Weekly Royal Fashion Awards: October 15-21

An Honorable Mention, For Starters...

The Duke of Cambridge

Video: Prince William carries out an investiture

Since Harry in uniform won the top spot a couple weeks ago, it only seems fair to offer the same to his big brother. Here's Wills looking dashing in uniform while taking a step forward in the world of senior royaldom by performing his first investiture on behalf of the Queen. (And of course his lovely wife was back in the game - see what I did there, lolz - this week as well, in repeated casual mode.)

Best in Hat

Queen Máxima

Left to Right: Mathilde continuing her visits around the country with the King; Máxima opening all kinds of stuff, really

Máx may have stuck to gray, but at least there were no visors. Also, she hilariously repeated her outfit from the Luxembourg wedding of 2012 just as we took a look back at her royal wedding guest appearances - minus the giant feather hat this time, though, because one doesn't have time to check ceiling heights and such for everyday use.

Best in Non-Hat

Princess Letizia

L to R: Mathilde at an AIDS and HIV event, at a fashion event, a concert, and an audience; Letizia in Totana and at an audience at Zarzuela; Victoria at a prize ceremony

Mathilde continued her foray into Belgian design variety with an outfit for her fashion event from Ann Demeulemeester, thankfully stopping short of the full runway version, and Victoria went for sparkle, but Letizia's simple black skirt and leopard blouse are winning this as far as I'm concerned. She looks good.

And a Final Honorable Mention to...

Princess Estelle

Princess Estelle attended a tennis tournament

And her parents were with her, I guess (details, details). Estelle! Automatic jumpy claps. You'll want to click here to see her big arrival, shaking hands, being awesome, etc.

Who was your best dressed last week?

Photos: Belga/Wort/ANP/PPE/DutchPhotoPress/VTM/Getty Images/Best Image/World Children's Prize Foundation

Weekly Royal Fashion Awards: September 15-21, Plus a Tiara Watch!

Best in Visits

Queen Máxima and Princess Letizia

Video: Felipe and Letizia meet their Dutch visitors at the airport

Willem-Alexander and Máxima got back to their one day visits to fellow European monarchs this past week with a quick stop in Spain to see the King and Queen. So many things to love just in this video: the warm greetings, the best thing Letizia wore all week, Máxima's abundant use of aquamarines, and her excellent response to the Spanish monarchy's anti-hat and currently anti-bling culture.

 

That would be a jeweled butterfly in the hair, of course. Attagirl!

Most Curiously Hatted

Queen Mathilde

Continuing visits across the country with King Philippe

Mathilde had other events this week (she was in New York, and I think we'll cover that when we cover the rest of the people in NYC next week), but this one sort of wiped them all out. There are outfits that you can casually throw a hat on...and then there are outfits that you can not.

Second Most Curiously Hatted

Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit

Visiting Vest-Agder

I don't know what exactly is going on here, but these two together without context humors me. If I hadn't seen them next to each other on video (click here!), I might think someone had Photoshopped this up: one Arctic survivor bundled up for life and one dude in a suit, just out for a stroll.

Best in Family Events

The Swedish Royal Family

King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip, Chris O'Neill, and Princess Madeleine attend a reception celebrating the King's 40th Jubilee

First, the Jubilee festivities continued with a reception, where Victoria's simple dress was the perfect day dress to pair with her father's order, and a much less distracting choice than Silvia's Easter egg suit...

The Opening of Parliament and the evening performance (King and Queen not pictured)

...and then it was time for the annual opening of Parliament. The black and white on the ladies is the standard dress code, and a throwback to the court dress of earlier days, and Madeleine's winning it (during the day at least).

Best in Variety

Crown Princess Mary

Mary at an awards ceremony, and during the state visit from Vietnam (with her Erdem dress)

Mary had a busy week, more events than this, and she had some interesting designers too. A blue Gucci number - not unlike the Gucci worn by Máxima earlier this year, sans the Bea sleeves - and Erdem! Count that as another royal Erdem that I actually like. I like that blue coat too, and as a bonus it was worn for a state visit, and you know what that means...

Tiara Watch!

Reason #597 why fall is awesome: we usually get a couple state visits out of it, and state visits = tiaras. Tiaras in all their sparkly action, no less:

Video: State banquet for the President of Vietnam

Queen Margrethe is wearing the Baden Palmette Tiara; Mary has on her wedding tiara; Marie is wearing her regular floral tiara; and Benedikte is also in her floral tiara. A regular diamond party! And thank heavens for the tiaras, because I'm not wild about the gowns. Marie's is lovely, but that waist ornamentation has no business being cluttered by a sash and a star. And Mary looks like she's reusing the skirt from one of my favorite New Year's Court outfits, and yet I still don't love it. Hmm...

Who was your best dressed last week?

Photos: IBL/Belga/NRK/Expressen/BestImage/Abaca/Kongehuset

Weekly Royal Fashion Awards: July 15-20, and a Bonus of Cute

Best in Cute

Prince George of Cambridge

Video: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge leave the hospital with their bundle of joy

Obviously this is outside of our date range, happening yesterday. Whatever. BABIES, amirite?! You could just pick him up and squeeze him. (But don't, because police.) They were one adorable, happy family in blue. Kate's bespoke Jenny Packham was great {insert your own required Diana polka dot comparison here}, but the warm fuzzies were better.

I do love any occasion that lets the headline writers run wild.

UPDATE: The baby's name is George Alexander Louis. Anybody guess right? (I certainly didn't!)

Best in Other Cute Things

The A-Team, ESTELLE, and Puppies

Left to right: the Dutch royal family poses for their annual family photoshoot, Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Estelle meet scholarship winners, and the Norwegian crown princely family pose with their new puppies

Too. Much. Cute. This should hold us over for a while (it won't, though, because we're not reasonable like that).

Compared to all that, the rest of the week was kinda boring. Haakon tried to liven things up by parachuting into his 40th birthday music festival (because who just has a plain old party, come on).

This party caused a bit of a stir, I guess. First, there was fuss over increased police cost, then it emerged that the guests had been asked to contribute to the costs of the party. All this with a background of fuss over Mette-Marit accepting designer clothes and such for free. But on it went. Click here for a long video, and here for a picture gallery. There were some other royals there too.

Best of the Rest
Princess Letizia, Princess Mathilde, Crown Princess Mary

Princess Letizia attending a naval graduation and audiences; Princess Mathilde (this all happened pre-abdication, pre-Queen Mathilde) at a luncheon and other engagements

Here's a highlight of the rest, the actual business sort of events. But frankly, as far as this post is concerned, if you can't give me at least a puppy you get a meh.

Video: Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik attend a ballet

I suppose Mary and Frederik are my favorites. Fred, really. You gotta respect a man whose sartorial dictionary doesn't include the word blergh.

Who's your favorite?

Photos: The Sun/Getty Images/Abaca/Kongehuset

Weekly Royal Fashion Awards: January 6-12

Things were still pretty slow last week in royal land. Nevertheless…

Best in Distractions

The Duchess of Cambridge

Hey! We finally figured out what it takes to shift the general conversation away from clothes and babies - if only for a mere second - and all it took was one questionable portrait. The more you know.

Best in…

Princess Letizia

At audiences.

Uh...hair? Sure, let’s go with hair.

Best in Questionable

Princess Mathilde

Attending a New Year reception

You know, the more I look at this one, the less I like the little jacket. She's trying to take the dress down a notch, and I don't think it's working so well.

And an Honorable Mention to...

Princess Charlene

This is both lovely on her and informative, because she wore white. Privilège du blanc – the privilege for a lady to wear white when in an audience with the Pope – hasn't been associated with Monaco in the past (Princess Grace wore black, as most ladies are expected to do). The Vatican confirmed this was the appropriate dress, so this is no faux pas. Innnnteresting.

Who caught your eye last week?

Photos: Getty Images/PPE

Royal Trip Report: The Belgians in Turkey

Last week, before scooting over to Luxembourg for the big royal wedding, Philippe and Mathilde visited Turkey on an economic mission for Belgium. And there was some fabulousness, and some averageness, and some orangeness.

Day 1 arrival; Day 2

Orangeness. I really think if she went a week without wearing orange, I wouldn’t recognize her. (Can you tell it’s just not my favorite color? But it seems to be hers, so fair enough.) Note Phillipe’s tie: the couple that matches together stays together, apparently.

Day 4, in Dries Van Noten

Averageness. This is a totally typical Mathilde silhouette, but with an un-typical print. Innnnteresting…and just a touch psychedelic, like if you look too long you’ll be sucked through the vortex. We should move on, just in case.

A concert on Day 3; more events on Day 2 in Zara

Fabulousness. First, the purple. It’s PURPLE, do I need to expound? I do not. And then the white, which might just be my favorite Mathilde outfit of the year. I love her in pure white, and I’m loving the shaping. I gather she received the necklace as a gift while there, but it works perfectly too. Jumpy claps!

Week in Review: Princess Mathilde, 10-16 June

1. Day 1 of her visit to Japan alongside her husband, Prince Philippe, 10 June.
2. Day 2, 11 June, and I love this dress. The gray and the pop of yellow, picked up (for once) in only one accessory: A+.
3. a) Day 3, 12 June, in b) Dries van Noten.
4. Evening of day 3, 12 June. Her curtsey in those shoes makes me seriously nervous.
5. Day 4, 13 June, and the clothes have descended into the wrinkled abyss. Happens on my vacations too, dear.

Photos: HLN/Svenskdam/Hola/Lehtikuva

Week in Review: Princess Mathilde, 11-17 March

1. Arriving in Vietnam for an economic mission with Prince Philippe, 11 March. I feel like if I look at this one too long, I might get pulled through the rabbit hole. That is a whole lot o' stripes, my friend.
2. Still on Day 1 of the visit, 11 March. Oh, much better. Fresh and lovely in Dries van Noten.
3. Day 2, 12 March.
4. Evening of day 2 at an official government dinner, 12 March.

5. Day 3, 13 March.
6. An official reception on day 3, 13 March. Gorgeous color!
7. Day 4, 14 March.
8. Speaking to the press about the Belgian bus crash tragedy, 14 March.

9. Arriving in Ho Chi Minh City, 15 March.
10. Day 5, 15 March. Clearly we have a shawl theme going on here.
11. Official banquet, 15 March.
12. Final reception on day 6, 16 March. Stripes are definitely better in moderation.


Photos: HLN/Svenskdam/Belga

2011 in Review: Princess Mathilde

Best of the Year

Oh, help. As much as I harp and harp about color, the truth is that few things can make me go as weak as a simply perfect white dress. And Mathilde, at Princess Maxima's 40th birthday concert, got it exactly right. Stunning, end of story.

Runners Up

Visions in white aside, the best thing about Mathilde's style is that she's not afraid of color. Hot pink, orange (times 2), red leather, even leopard all make my list of favorite 2011 looks out of Belgium. And just because I'm a sucker for anything with even a teensy hint of retro, one all black ensemble sneaks in.

Worst of the Year

If color is the best thing about Mathilde's sartorial m.o., the worst thing is that she sometimes seems to lose her sense of what works for her. She struggles with fit, and where exactly the waist should be stuck. This outfit hits both of those problem areas, while adding a third: it's just not the kind of thing she can pull off. She did something I wish she'd do more of, which is explore non-Natan Belgian designers (this is Dries Van Noten), but she picked something that simply must be worn with a certain runway nonchalance. But on Mathilde, with her earnest and sweet persona, it's just a pair of too-big too-short trousers and a baggy shirt.

Which outfits make your best and worst lists for Mathilde in 2011?

Photos: Purepeople/Abaca/Isopix/Daylife

Week in Review: Princess Mathilde, 8-14 May

Here's what Mathilde wore from 8-14 May:

1. Attending a gala for the King Baudouin Foundation, 10 May, a) on Mathilde, and b) from Dries Van Noten. Well, okay...should we: 1) dispare once again the length of her clothes or 2) be thankful she knew she couldn't pull off the genie in a bottle look? I'll pick 3) just be happy she went with a Belgian designer that is NOT Natan, and shut up about the rest of it.
2. Handing out the 2011 Princess Mathilde Prize, 12 May. I think we've got the beginnings of an orange shoe rut on our hands, friends. I mean, I didn't think such a thing was possible, but here it is. First, she repeats the shoes she wore for the pre-wedding reception in London (and note the other orange shoes on display that week as well), and then she repeats a pair of orange pumps we saw just last week. Oh, she's just breaking ground left and right this week, eh?

Photos: APA PictureDesk/Elle